In recent years, inhibitors of HIV protease have become an important class of therapeutic agents for inhibition and treatment of HIV infection in humans. HIV protease inhibitors are especially effective when administered in combination with other classes of HIV therapeutic agents, especially inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase, e.g. in “cocktails” of two or more HIV therapeutic agents.
On-going treatment of HIV-infected individuals with compounds that inhibit HIV protease has led to the development of mutant viruses that possess proteases that are resistant to the inhibitory effect of approved, commercially available HIV therapeutic agents currently in clinical use. Thus, to be effective, new HIV protease inhibitors must be effective not only against wild-type strains of HIV, but must also demonstrate efficacy against the newly emerging mutant strains that are resistant to the commercially available protease inhibitors. Accordingly, there continues to be a need for new HIV protease inhibitors, for example those targeting the HIV protease in both wild type and mutant strains of HIV.